Woman to testify about Spector, gun

The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial ruled Wednesday that a fifth woman will be allowed to testify that the music producer threatened her with a gun.

The testimony of Devra Robitaille, a former employee and girlfriend of Spector, follows accounts from four other women, each of whom told the jury earlier in the trial that Spector had pulled a gun when she tried to leave his presence.

Robitaille is expected to testify today after jurors tour Spector’s Alhambra mansion, where he allegedly shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson four years ago. The defense contends she shot herself.

Defense lawyers strongly objected to Robitaille’s trial appearance, arguing that she should have been called earlier and that jurors might be “unduly influenced” by her testimony. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler disagreed.

Testimony Wednesday included discussion of people who videotape their own suicides and a discourse on studies of victims of beheadings during the French Revolution.

Dr. Jan Leestma, a Chicago neuropathologist, provided expert testimony for the defense on the significance of how Clarkson’s body was found, slumped in a chair with the legs outstretched. Leestma said it was consistent with a suicide.

Leestma drew on his experience with “dying movements” to come to his conclusion, he said.

Leestma said some people who take their own lives film their deaths. He testified that he had seen videos in which the body ended up in a position similar to Clarkson’s.

Under questioning by prosecutor Alan Jackson, the expert acknowledged that he could not determine whether Clarkson’s death was murder or suicide.

When Jackson asked if a dying victim could exhale blood as long as five seconds after suffering the fatal shot, Leestma said:

“On TV maybe, in the slow-motion cuts. . . but not in reality.”

Jackson asked Leestma to cite published medical authorities supporting his position. The expert responded that physicians who studied the bodies of people guillotined during the French Revolution reported observing some spasms hours after decapitation.

The day began with the sort of complication that could occur only in Southern California.

Fidler asked a man known as Juror No. 6 whether his employer, New Line Cinema, “may not have some financial connection” with Michael Bay, the “Transformers” director, who testified for the prosecution.

“Yes, we have two of Mr. Bay’s projects. He’s the producer of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ our remake from 2001, and another ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ” the juror said.

“I do not personally know Mr. Bay. But our company has worked on two of his projects,” he said.

Fidler asked if the connection would affect his impartiality.

“Absolutely not, your honor,” the juror responded.

Fidler then allowed the man to remain on the jury.

john.spano@latimes.com